Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas this year!  It was filled with love, fun surprises, giving, and most importantly remembering the true meaning of Christmas....our Savior, Jesus Christ.  I am so glad for this time of year so I can remember Christ and all of his love and sacrifice he has made for every person in this world.  I also love this time of year because it reminds me that I need to remember Christ through out the whole year and not just during Christmas time.  I am so grateful for my Savior and all he has done for me.  I hope this next year we can all remember our Savior a little better through out the year.

Here are some of the events that took place on Christmas Day!

We stayed home for Christmas morning so Santa could come to our house this year.  After Santa left we took a picture of all the wonderful things he left under the brightly lit tree!

 

 We sure got spoiled this year!

 

Our Stockings

Kyla with all of her toys(there's some below the couch too but I couldn't get them in the picture)!!

 

Kyla woke up around 7am.  We kept her in our room for a few minute while Hyrum went to get the video camera and to check on "Santa."  Whild Kyla and I were in the bedroom, we heard a knock at the door and then Hyrum answered it and heard, "HO HO HO!  Merry Christmas!"  Hyrum said, "Santa!  Merry Christmas.  Thanks for all the stuff you left us!"  Santa: "You're welcome!  Merry Christmas!"  Then the door shut. (If you didn't catch on, Hyrum was pretending Santa came so Kyla could hear.)  She got sooo excited!  Then Hyrum came in the bedroom with the video camera and we all went out to see the gifts Santa brought!  We opened our stockings first, divided the gifts up and Kyla went at it!  She had so much fun and is quite a pro at opening gifts.  We left the ones from Santa for last.  She got a Buzz Lightyear and a Woody from Santa!  She couldn't have been happier.  The looks on her face were priceless.  

It's so interesting how your perspective changes about things once you become a parent.  I wanted to sacrifice all the money towards my gifts just so we could get Kyla what she wanted.  It's also interesting being a parent around christmas time because I didn't care what I got for Christmas and there's not as much exitement about yourself and what you're getting.  You're more excited about seeing the faces of children light up when they discover their Christmas presents!  It's a joy I never would havequite fully understood if I didn't have a kid.  It's wonderful and I wouldn't want it any other way.  I'm assuming the excitement and joy only gets better with more kids!

Kyla with her 2 favorite toys of the year...Woody and Buzz!

After unwrapping all of our gifts, we got Kyla ready for the day and were going to head over to Hyrum's families house for Christmas with them.  Unfortunately it snowed so much the night before and the roads were not plowed at all that we would have gotten stuck in our own parking lot and more than likely on the roads.  Hyrum's dad came to get us that morning with their 4 wheel drive and we eventually got there safe and sound!

Kyla opened her gifts from Grandma and Grandpa and loved having more to open of course. :)

All of us on Christmas at Hyrum's family's house. (Notice Kyla's wearing a cute new outfit she got from my mom for Christmas!)

We stayed over there most of the day, came home for Kyla's nap (and mine! although I was so excited the whole day I hardly slept at all) and went back over there for more fun.  We played lots of games, talked, ate and just had fun!  It was a wonderful day and one year I will never forget!  Thanks to everyone for all of their kindness and generosity to us this year.  We love you!  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Christmas Eve

Hyrum's family always has a Christmas party every year where they do lots of fun traditions.  We had the party on Christmas Eve.  One of the things they usually do is go sledding.  Kyla wasn't sure if she enjoyed it or not but she slid down the hill a couple times with Hyrum, once with her cousin Courtney, once with me and once by herself.  She liked playing in the snow the most I think.

All of us together

Hyrum and Kyla sledding down a hill

 

 All 3 of us

 

We also went carolling, ate lots of yummie food, did a Secret Santa type event (where we deliver presents to those who need it), did a Brother/Sister gift exchange, and opened one present from Mom and Dad...PJs!!  It was so much fun and we love getting to spend so much time with them. 

Half Way!

Today I have reached my Half Way through pregnancy mark!  I am 20 weeks along already and man, it has flown by!  The baby is now 10 inches long from head to toe about the length of a banana and weighs about 6 1/2 ounces.  We are extremely anxious to find out what we're having in a week from Monday.  Although we technically could have found out the gender about 2 weeks previously, we have to wait until the beginning of the year.  January 5th is the day!  If you haven't voted yet, hurry and put your votes in!  My belly is consistantly growing and the baby moves around like crazy.  I hope this last half will go just as quickly or quicker than the first!  Wish me luck!

Side note: This is my 100th post!!!!  Yay!  Go me! :)  I'm not doing anything cool like giveaways or 100 things about myself...sorry, hope you continue to read anyway!

One OTHER side note: I will be posting pictures VERY shortly (probably tomorrow) about our fabulous Christmas and Kyla's reactions....stay tuned!

Once there was a Snowman...

I posted in my last blog how we might go out and play in the snow since there is SOO much!  Well we did!  We're borrowing a snowsuit from Grandma since we didn't have one and we went outside and built a snowman.  Kyla had so much fun! 

 

We had a carrot for the nose and raisins for the eyes and buttons.  We later made another snowman that had carrots for the ears and nose and raisins for the eyes....Kyla decided the look on that one! :)  

Fun Weekend!

WARNING:  THIS IS A BOOK!  Lots of pictures and lots of fun events happened....be ye warned!

We had a very eventful weekend! 2 of my Bestest friends, Bonnie and Karianne, from high school came up from Utah to visit for a couple days.  It was so fun to see and spend some time with them!  Bonnie's little girl is only 6 weeks younger than Kyla so they played together and became the bestest of friends!  We got lots of pictures of them together. 
We played games, talked, watched movies, had pizza, went shopping and bought the girls matching shirts!  It was so much fun to have so much girl time...I'm sure Hyrum felt outnumbered but he enjoyed visiting with them too!  Thanks for coming to visit girls!  You're the greatest and I love ya lots!
Here's pictures of our photo shoot:

 

  

  

  

My Best Friends and I

Along with visits, we got TONS of snow!  Last night it snowed probably about 4 inches alone!  Kyla and I will probably be going out to play in the snow today since we haven't yet this winter.

Saturday afternoon after the girls left, we got new couches from Hyrum's uncle!  He was giving them to us in return for Hyrum's computer service.  It's a matching couch and loveseat.  They're 20 years old but in amazing condition, very comfy, and it just makes our home look and feel more like home!  Our green couch is just wearing out, although it's still in pretty good condition too.  We're selling it on the BYU-I bulliten board for $50.  Right now we have it stored at Hyrum's work so if any of you are looking for a pretty good couch, I might even just give it to ya for pretty cheap or maybe even nothing at all just so we can get rid of it!   Just let me know.  Here's pictures of our newest home addition.

Hyrum and I also did some more Christmas shopping Saturday night.  Hyrum's mom and dad watched Kyla while we went out on our "date".  We're getting SOOO excited for Christmas and can't wait to see little Kyla's face light up when she sees what we got her!  You will all just have to wait and be surprised too when I post what she got! :)  Hyrum and I went out for ice cream at Coldstone with a gift card that we had afterwards.

The last event of the weekend was Hyrum's grandma's Christmas party.  There were TONS of people there and kids running around.  We ate dinner, visited, did a nativity play and program and opened gifts from Grandma. 

That's all for the weekend...now if only I can make some time to finish Christmas shopping for Hyrum, wrap all the presents, finish folding the laundry, send out our soon-to-be-late Christmas cards, and get ready for the day (Yeah I know...it's 10 am and I should be doing all this stuff before blogging, but I'm addicted and I'll admit it!), then I'll be all set and ready for Christmas.  There's only 3 days left you know...do you think I'll make it?  K..stop laughing at my procrastination, it doesn't happen too often you know!

Joke of the Day

I came across this last night.  After cleaning more than usual this week I figure I'm good....forever!  No more cleaning!  What's the point anyway?  If this is true, why even bother?  I'd rather waste my life away doing something else!  I'm going on a cleaning strike, anyone else with me? :)

Mother Like Daughter

This is one of my favorite pictures of me as a little girl. As Kyla is growing up I can see more and more of my features in her. Although she does have her own cute little face with her own features, you can definitely tell we're related. What do you think...does Kyla look like me?

Head and Hands

Kyla loves putting things on her head and hands.  Silly Girl! She did these all on her own doing too.  See for yourself!

*Those are marker lids in case you didn't know.

AMAZING!

My wonderful friend Tiffany is an absolutly amazing person and extraordinary photographer!  Even though her and her husband are moving away today, she took the time to take some pictures of Kyla earlier this week.  They turned out A-MAZ-ING!  Seeing her work truly inspires me. Thanks so much again Tiffany (I know I've told you a billion times already..but I really do mean it!)!!!

Here are a couple of our favorites.

 

  

Isn't she just the cutest and most beautiful little 2 year old you have EVER seen?  Even if you think you have a cute 2 year old, I'll still have to differ with you....Sorry, mine's cuter! :)  

p.s. I know you've been hearing a lot from me lately. I've posted everyday this week!  Go me! Hope you're not too sick of me yet!

Imagination

I just wanted to say that I think it's cute that my 2 year old likes playing with my old barbies.  Not only plays with them but as we speak she is using her imagination!  It's so fun seeing my little Kyla grow up!  She's laying on the floor, holding up a barbie saying, "You ready go?....Yes."  She also has the boy and the girl barbies dance together.  How do kids learn imagination anyway?  Is it something they just pick up, or do parents teach them?  What do you think?

One other thing...I think we're going to start officially potty training Kyla in the next couple weeks.  I can't decide if we're going to start next week or sometime after Christmas and New Years.  I already bought her pull ups and Elmo and Tinkerbell panties (she picked!) so hopefully that will get her excited to start!  Wish us luck!

Kyla Meets Santa

 

For the past couple weeks we've been asking Kyla what Santa says and she says, "Ho ho ho!".  We also have been asking Kyla what she wants for Christmas and what she's going to ask Santa for.  She says she wants a "Woody, Buzz and Baby Doll" except she says it all as if it's one word. Anyway, she's been excited to tell Santa what she's wanted for Christmas.  We had our ward Christmas Party last night.  We had a fun surprise visit from Santa!  Last year she cried when she was on Santa's lap but this year she wasn't afriad at all!  At first she was a little hesitant but then she got candy from Santa and sat on his lap.  She even told him what she wanted for Christmas!  It was soooo cute and fun. She's growing up way too fast! After she was done she gave him a hug and talked about him all night.  We told him he left on his sleigh and reindeer but that we would see him again in a week or two. (I'm going to take her to go see Santa at the store).  While we were cleaning up after the party, she wandered off and when I found her she said, "Santa go?" Meaning...where did Santa go?  Then she said he was with his reindeer.  Man...if she's this fun this year...she'll be even more fun next year! 

Randomness

This post is nothing exciting. Just a bunch of random happenings mostly. First, I just wanted to ask if this past month has seemed to fly by extremely fast for anyone else? I can't believe it's already almost the middle of December and I STILL haven't figured out what we're doing for Christmas cards this year. We haven't taken a good updated family picture in awhile so I need to get on that very soon and get them all in the mail!! Any takers on wanting to snap a photo of our family real quick? So if you're finding that you haven't received a card, letter or photo from us come Christmas time, just know that I am thinking about you and hope that you have a VERY MERRY Christmas! :) (Don't worry, I'll do my best at getting them out sooner than later...)

As for more randomness, I went to Idaho Falls last week to go grocery shopping. I've been wanting to spend some birthday money that I've had too so I went to Target and found some really cute shelves! I was so excited because now our apartment is looking a little more decorated and more beautiful than it was before! I also got a cool necklace and a new maternity shirt! I can still wear most of my "non" maternity clothes without a problem and most of the maternity shirts I own now seem a little big still, but they fit. Anyway, I was pretty excited about getting a new and cute! maternity shirt...not to mention it was on sale and short sleeved which made it even more exciting. Just a note about my pregnancies: I can't wear long sleeved shirts very often when pregnant (even in the winter) because I just get so stinking hot! I love the cute maternity sweaters and was almost tempted to buy one of those instead but realized pretty fast that I would end up taking it off 1/2 the day just to not die from over heating. :)

Kyla's birthday is coming up soon and I'm trying to think of some ideas for a party for her. Should it be themed? What kind of stuff does a newly 2 year old girl like to play with at a party? Do they even really care? What are your thoughts?

Well, that's all for now I guess. Pictures still to come...I promise!

What's YOUR guess?

I had another doctors appointment today at 17 weeks and everything is fine and dandy. My back has still continued to hurt off and on for the last month and the doctor suggested a chiropractor. Since my wonderful sister in law is a Message Therapist and specializes in Pregnancy and Labor Message, I'm planning on booking an appointment with her first before I do anything else!

I've been feeling this little one dance around more frequently too so that's been fun and exciting! Here are some fun facts from BabyCenter.com about how the baby is doing now.
"Your baby's skeleton is changing from soft cartilage to bone, and the umbilical cord — her lifeline to the placenta — is growing stronger and thicker. Your baby weighs 5 ounces now (about as much as a turnip), and she's around 5 inches long from head to bottom. She can move her joints, and her sweat glands are starting to develop."

If you haven't noticed already, I put a poll on the side of my blog. That's right folks...it's time to start guessing what gender Baby Denney #2 is going to be! Our next doctors appointment will be January 5th and that'll be the exciting day! Just for the record, I have had no "motherly intuition" on what the gender is. So I'll leave the guesses up to you! Happy Guessing!

p.s. more pregnancy pictures will be posted soon!

It's the Most Wonderful Time Of the Year!

I have been asking Hyrum for a real Christmas tree this year since last Christmas!  All we have right now is a 3 foot fake tree which is all good and fine but I never felt like it was REALLY Christmas because it wasn't even a normal sized tree.  To make a long story short, Hyrum said we could get a real tree this year!  People said that it would cost about $40 so that's what we were expecting but when we got ours, we got it for only $23!  So we were quite excited about that.  Hyrum went to pick up the tree during Kyla's nap and she woke up as he was bringing it up.  We set it all up and decorated it while listening to Christmas music and now it feels like Christmas!  Growing up, we had a fake tree (although I do remember sometimes when I was younger we got real trees) and I missed the smell of pine.  Everytime I walk into our apartment now, the scent of Christmas pine is all around and I love it!  Even though there is no snow on the ground yet in Rexburg, it feels more like Christmas and the more excited I get!  For Family Night last night we made sugar cookies and I've been wanting to make peanut brittle...both fabulous Christmas goodies.  Here are some pictures of us decorating!

Kyla and Hyrum putting the angel on top of the tree

Kyla and I putting decorations on the tree.

 

Our fully decorated tree
 

In other news, I went to the dentist last week and found out I had 3 cavities which I thought was pretty good for not being at the dentist for almost 4 years.  Plus being pregnant twice does a lot to your teeth!  Yesterday I had the cavities taken care of.  The dentist didn't give me any medication for 2 of the cavities and I didn't feel a thing so that was kinda crazy.  The last one he did was painful so he gave me some novacain right when I said it was hurting.  I never thought that I would ever get a cavity taken care of with out medication...I guess never say never!  I must say I feel much better now about having my teeth cleaned and all the cavities taken care of.  Now if only I can be brave enough to set up a time to get my wisdom teeth out before they start bothering me.....

Thanksgiving

I have been wanting to post for quite awhile about Thanksgiving but haven't seemed to have the time to do it!  We had a great break.  My dad actually came up to visit with us for the week and we had so much fun!  He arrived late in the evening on his birthday so we didn't do too much then but we decorated our house with birthday banners and balloons.  Kyla was already in bed when he arrived so she saw him Wednesday morning.  Usually she has to warm up to people and gets pretty shy if she hasn't seen someone in awhile or if she doesn't remember them but she didn't even hesitate when she saw her Grandpa Harvey!  She ran up to him and gave him hugs and kisses. 
On Wednesday we went up to Mesa Falls.  There was a little snow and ice on the roads but we made it safely and took some pictures.

Kyla laughing at Grandpa

That evening after Hyrum got off work, we celebrated my dad's birthday and took him out for Chinese food and bowling!  We all did pretty bad....I actually won which tells you how bad we did but we still had lots of fun!  Kyla bowled for Hyrum and she got strikes and spares and did the best overall I think!  She's a natural. :)

 

  

Grandpa helping Kyla bowl (notice the ball pusher she used.  She did so good using this thing!).  She's clapping and so proud of how well she did! :)

 

Grandpa and Kyla

 

All of us at the bowling alley

I didn't take any pictures on Thanksgiving day but to give you an idea it was crowded, loud, and lots of fun!  We went to Hyrum's grandparents house where most of his family was.  We had about 37 people there total and there were about 5 long tables put together in the basement.  It was about 30 feet long!  There was plenty of food for everyone and we all got so full!  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Denney for hosting such a wonderful meal and for putting up with so many people!   We relaxed most of the day with them by chatting, playing outside, playing games, watching movies, etc.  

Friday we helped Hyrum's parents decorate their house and tree for Christmas and my dad and I did some family history work.  We then had a Santa Clause marathon. We watched all 3 Santa Clause movies while Hyrum's mom and I scrapbooked!  We didn't do any shopping which I wished I could have done, but in the end, glad that I didn't. 

Saturday morning my dad left.  It was so fun to have him here and Kyla was really sad to see him go!  He was so cute and good with her and Kyla loved spending so much time with him!  Thanks for coming to visit us Dad!  We love and miss you.  Hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving!